THE ASPIRE BLOG

Aspire Indiana Health has many different teams working  together to make our holistic health care model have a positive impact on Hoosiers. One of them is the school-based teams. This team is made up of licensed therapists, care coordinator/life skills instructors (CC-LSI), unlicensed therapists and supervisors. Each role plays an important part in the team and is the reason the school-based teams do an amazing job at what they do! 

The manager for Aspire’s school-based teams is Amanda Votaw. Amanda has been with Aspire for five years, starting as a supervisor and moving to manager. She is a licensed family and marriage therapist, and has been practicing since she graduated from college. 

A large part of her job is to maintain partnerships with the schools Aspire partners with, plus program management and coordination. Amanda oversees the day-to-day plans, referrals and attends meetings with many of the schools Aspire has partnerships with. Each one of Aspire’s school partners is unique in its own way. Therefore, not each school-based partnership looks the same.

Aspire currently partners with schools in Marion, Hamilton, and Madison counties. Within Marion County, Aspire has partnerships with several of the YMCAs’ developmental preschool programs, ACE prep academy, Matchbook Learning, Indiana School for the Blind and Hope Academy. 

In Hamilton County Aspire is partnered with Hamilton Heights School Corporation, Carmel/Clay, Noblesville and Westfield schools. Although Aspire may not be the sole provider for all of the schools listed, they provide services both in-person and virtually. Within Madison County Aspire is in Frankton, Elwood, Lapel, Madison-Grant, Anderson Preparatory Academy as well as Liberty Christian Schools. 

Along with these schools, Aspire also partners with the Goodwill Excel Centers locations across the state.

Some of these partnerships allow Aspire to have teams located directly in the school system. Whereas in some schools Aspire staff spend time at the school but have no dedicated office space there. Along with these there are also virtual options for people to schedule appointments with individuals at Aspire through Video in Person (ViP).

Although these services are school-based, Aspire is not only serving the student, but also the family of the student too. School-based services can extend into home services as well. The main goal when working with the school-based clients is to engage with the family as well.

Since the school-based teams' role can be so complex, Vatow says that members of the school-based team should be “structured and flexible.” Although many individuals can set their own schedule for the day, it can be completely changed in a matter of minutes. 

The school-based team is made up of many wonderful individuals. One of those is Nykaisa Williams. Nykasia has been with Aspire since August of 2021. She recently graduated from Ball State University in December of 2021 and took on a CC-LSI role in the school-based teams after completing her internship and degree. 

“I definitely see all of us having the quality of being a leader and we're hardworking,” Williams says. “I don't know if I've ever worked with a more determined and hardworking team. We're always willing to do the work and be flexible with meeting the needs of our clients and their families.”

Aaron Benjamin has been with the school-based teams for four and a half years. Aaron received his bachelor's degree from Ball State University and has been a CC-LSI since he began at Aspire. 

“The unique thing about our school-based team is we also have that option of going to the homes after school. When they have breaks in summer, spring and fall break, we continue working with them doing home-based work with them,” he says. 

“However, school-based is more about working with the kids in the school setting in order to address those behaviors that they're struggling with. The good thing about what we do is we can be stationed right there in the school if the kid has an outburst and they need us, they can call for us and we can kind of go there as needed. So I think it's a unique opportunity that maybe a home-based service might not be able to offer. 

“I think it gives us a good opportunity. Not only to see those behaviors in real time in the school setting, but then also be able to take those back to the parents. So we kind of get the home and the school setting with the kids, which I think is great.”

Emma Guy graduated from IUPUI in 2020 with a masters in social work, and now works as a school-based therapist at Hamilton Heights Elementary. Emma has been with Aspire for three and a half years. Emma’s day-to-day schedule consists of seeing five to six students to work on different therapy techniques. 

“My team has helped a lot, but I also would say I've learned and grown so much through, just because I've worked at Aspire I always say it's my first big-girl job too, but I just feel like I've learned and grown a lot through all the roles that I've been in,” Guy says. 

“I felt very supported and kind of encouraged to do more and dream about even going to different avenues. If I want to try other things or take different trainings, I just feel very supported by everybody at Aspire.” 

Youth mental health is starting to be more of a priority in the political sphere. In a recent State of the Union address, President Biden mentioned the decline of the stigma on mental health for the youth and announced new funding to address that. It’s welcome news to school-based providers.

Votaw says “we have been pushing youth mental health, we have been pushing to reduce the stigma. I think that COVID had a huge impact. Youth mental health is in crisis mode right now. When COVID first began it was the unknown of the medical impact that was scary. Now, I feel like we are in the unknown of the mental health impact. 

“The hardest part is that we are going through it as we are working through it. However, we now see people not shying away and seeking help and services for their mental health.”

Aspire’s school-based teams are made up of many individuals who love what they do. They are so grateful for the hard work that each individual contributes to their overall mission. School-based teams are one way that Aspire is able to extend our services into the community and make appointments and treatment more accessible. 

Votaw: “The great part about school-based services is that it's an access to care point. We can break down those barriers for families who may not have had access to these services by connecting with them first in a school setting.”